Pulitzer Prize Winning "English," A Powerful Profound Prolific Play at Wallis Annenberg Center Now thru 4/26

Hurry on down to the exquisite enthralling enticing Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Bram Goldsmith Theatre, at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills, to catch English. This A+ ace adept adroit work of art arrives hot off its critically acclaimed Broadway run. Be sure to get there early to peruse the pristine polished premiere preeminent entertainment complex.

English won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was nominated for five 2025 Tony Awards including Best Play, Direction by Knud Adams, and Scenic Design by Marsha Ginsberg. American Theatre magazine cited English as the 20th of “50 Plays of the New Millenium that Pushed Theatre Forward.”

Written by playwright Sanaz Toossi, English is about an Iranian ESL class studying for the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). Chasing fluency through a maze of word games, listening exercises, and show-and-tell sessions, four adult students hope that one day, English will make them whole -- but it might be splitting each of them in half.

The Iranian American cast of terrific top notch tantalizing talents: Tala Ashe, Ava Lalezarzadeh, Pooya Mohseni, Marjan Neshat and Hadi Tabbal, speak with fluent contemporary American accents when their characters are speaking in Farsi, and use stilted or studied Iranian accents when they are speaking English.

In a 2022 interview, Toossi described English as “not just a comedy about language lessons, but a meditation about language itself, both as a tool of connection and also as an aspect of identity.”

Among the few Middle East and North African-written plays on the American Theatre list, English explores self image, individuality and communication in a personal way: What does it mean to feel foreign, and what does it mean to love yourself in a different language?

English will touch your heart and catapult you to look deep into your soul, discovering a newfound import for how we treat each other. If we strive to express more kindness and compassion in our encounters, the similarities will become more evident than the differences. There is one action word that is the same in any language...which is LOVE.

English runs Tuesday to Friday evenings at 7:30pm; Saturdays at 2:00pm and 7:30pm; and Sundays at 2:00pm and 7:00pm. There is No Performance on Sunday evening, April 26.

Tickets start at $53.90 and are available Online at TheWallis.org. or by Phone at 310.746.4000

Since its doors opened in 2013, The Wallis has produced and presented nearly 500 theater, dance, music, film, cabaret, comedy, performance arts, and family entertainment programs, boasting nominations for 79 Ovation Awards and nine L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards, as well as six architectural awards.

The breathtaking 70,000-square-foot facility, celebrating the classic and the modern, was named after philanthropist Wallis Annenberg, who’s original $25-million-dollar donation was instrumental in transforming the beloved former 1934 Beverly Hills Post Office (on the National Register of Historic Places) into an arts complex.

Designed by acclaimed architect Zoltan E. Pali (SPF: architects), the restored building features one of two sets of eight towering original WPA frescos, these by Charles Kassler, remaining in the entire California Federal Building system.

The Wallis’ lobby, now known as Jim and Eleanor Randall Grand Hall, serves as the theater's dramatic yet welcoming entryway to the contemporary 500-seat, state-of-the-art Bram Goldsmith Theater; the 150-seat Lovelace Studio Theater; an inviting open-air plaza for family, community and other performances; and GRoW @ The Wallis: A Space for Arts Education, where learning opportunities for all ages and backgrounds abound.